Teaching Geoscience Concepts with Google Earth
Introduction
A great introduction to Google Earth (GE) can be found on the following website:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualize04/tool_examples/google_earth.html
Instructions for downloading and installing GE (it’s free!) are linked to from this website
and the basics of “Getting around” in GE are covered.
We will cover a few examples of geoscience data that are available for use in your
classroom including earthquakes, volcanoes, and glaciers.
Examples
I. Earthquakes
Go to the following URL (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/catalogs/) and download
the M 1+ earthquakes, past seven days (colored by depth) file.
Start up Google Earth and open the file you just downloaded (File -> Open). You should
see the data as different colored dots and a legend appear in the upper left corner of your
window.
Fly to Alaska (including the Aleutian Islands) by typing Alaska in the “Fly to” box in the
upper left corner of the screen. Answer the following questions:
1) What was the magnitude and location (Lat/Long) of the biggest earthquake in this
region in the past 7 days?
2) What type of plate boundary lies off the SE coast of Alaska? What do the arrow
and number in this location represent?
3) What do you notice about the distribution of shallow and deep earthquakes
relative to the plate boundary? Why do you think they have such a distribution?
Explore the “Places” window on the left side of the GE window and find the USGS
dataset that you just downloaded. In here you can navigate to the “Earthquakes” portion
of the dataset, which is categorized by depth of the earthquake.
4) What is the largest earthquake that has occurred globally in the past seven days?
Where is it located? What type of plate boundary is it associated with?
LINKS TO RELATED SITES:
USGS Earthquakes Hazards Program: http://earthquake.usgs.gov
National Earthquake Information Center: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/neic/
II. Volcanoes
We’re going to do an abbreviated form of the following exercise:
Volcano Landforms and Magma Composition:
http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/cyberinfrastructure/volcanoes/index.html
“Magma composition is an important control on the geomorphology of lava flows and
volcanoes. In this exercise, students investigate this relationship by studying several
classic examples of diverse volcano types in the western United States. Students use the
interactive Google Earth software to determine the size and shape of the selected
volcanoes, and then use the North American Volcanic and Intrusive Database
(NAVDAT) to gather geochemical data to test the nature of the relationship between
magma composition and volcano geomorphology.”
Background:
Visit the following websites to view the different types of volcanic landforms:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/VolcanoTypes/volcano_types.html
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Photo/Pictograms/volcano_types.html
Download the .kmz file found here:
http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/cyberinfrastructure/volcanoes/part_3.html
For only volcanoes 1 & 3, measure the width and record the height (summit elevation –
base elevation) in the table provided on the last page. Based on the size and shape, what
type of volcano do you predict each of these is? Record this in your table.
Data collection:
volcano 1
 Go to the NAVDAT query page (http://navdat.kgs.ku.edu/NavdatSearch/)

SET "Latitude/Longitude" to the following parameters:
o Northern Bound = 36.075
o Southern Bound = 36.075
o Western Bound = -117.8167
o Eastern Bound = -117.8167

Click on "GO TO DATA"

Click on "TAS” diagram and you will see the rock type plotted as a red dot on the
graph
volcano 3
 Go to the NAVDAT query page

SET "Sample Characteristics" to retrieve "Igneous" and "Volcanic" rocks only.
Click "Apply".

SET "Latitude/Longitude" to the following parameters:
o Northern Bound = 46.92
o Southern Bound = 46.78
o Western Bound = -121.88
o Eastern Bound = -121.63

Click on "GO TO DATA"

Click on "TAS” diagram and take note of the range of SiO2 in the rocks as well as
the rock name.
Questions
1) Which volcano type has the greatest variation in magma composition?
2) Based on your observations recorded on your data table, is there a basis for
linking aspects of volcano morphology with magma composition? What is the
reason why magmas of different composition form different types of landforms?
3) How might you improve on what you just did in this exercise to better study the
link between magma composition and volcano morphology? List three things you
would do differently.
III. Glaciers
In Google Earth, fly to: 59.411909 N, -138.311455 W (Southeast Alaska, USA). Zoom
out a little so you can see the shoreline.
1. Using the coordinates above, scan north and south of this point to locate the following
glacial landforms and phenomena. Mark each landform or phenomenon you find with
the ‘Placemark’ tool, label it, and record its latitude and longitude in the table below.
Feature
Latitude
Longitude
Alpine Glacier
Cirque
Arete
Terminal Moraine
U-shaped Valley
LINKS TO RELATED SITES:
Glacier National Park: http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm
Glacier Bay National Park: http://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm
The Great Ice Age: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/ice_age/
NOAA web site on Glaciation: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/glaciation.html
Glaciers with Time: http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~geol445/hyperglac/time1/
Milankovitch Cycles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles
Name ________________________________________
Volcanic landforms
#
volcano type(s) present
(shield,stratovolcano, cinder cone,
lava dome, and caldera)
- some contain more than one!
approx.
height1
(ft)
Volcanic rock composition
approx.
diameter1
(miles)
silica content, SiO2
(wt.%)2
most common rock type(s)
(basalt, andesite, rhyolite)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1. For volcano #8, measure the height and diameter of the entire black area seen in the Google Earth image.
2. For volcanoes with multiple chemical analyses (#3, #5, and #10), include information about the range and peak(s) of the distribution.